ABSTRACT
Land reform is the deliberate act to change the existing land tenure in a rural area making it a non-evolutionary way to change land tenure. Agricultural production practices have evolved over the years including the way in which farmers wanted their fields to be arranged and adapted to new techniques and new agricultural assets. The invisible lines determining ownership, rental and use rights have changed constantly both as a result of changing economic circumstances and technological developments. Renters became owners, squatters became renters and sometimes owners became renters. The application of artificial fertilizers changed the demand for land plots previously seen as hardly worthwhile tilling; now the same plots provide opportunities for growing valuable crops. New and bigger agricultural machinery required fields to be of some minimum size and of optimal form. The application of irrigation techniques made it necessary to change the layout and the composition of fields. It all changed the plot sizes, the original boundaries of land parcels, and the tenure of rural lands in an evolutionary way. It challenged tenants constantly to explore new ways and new rights to be able to exploit the land. But land reform is different. Land reform changes the tenure situation almost overnight and has far reaching social and political consequences.
